The Book of Life

Rabbi Dovid Bendory, 12 Elul, 5766
Wall Street Synagogue

Birshut HaRav: This shiur is given as a zechut for a
refuah shleima for Mori v'Rabi, HaRav Shlomo Yitzchak ben Elka,
shlit"a, who is having surgery today.

We have been dealing with hilchot teshuva and the concept that if you
regret your actions and desire to change that your misdeeds will be erased in
your spiritual accounting. One of the things people don't think about with
regard to teshuva is that it actually works both ways, and the Rambam
brings this in Hilchot Teshuva 3:3.

[Listen to audio for Hebrew quotation.] Says the Rambam: "Anyone who regrets
having done a mitzvah and says in his heart, 'What good did it do me to
do all those mitzvot; if only I had not done them!'" — G-d
forbid, no one should say such a thing — "he loses them all, and they
are not recorded for him; not one of his merits is recorded for him in the
world. This is all with regard to a person who regrets having done his
mitzvot." In other words, just as regretting an aveira can lead
to the erasure of the aveira, so, too, regretting a mitzvah can
lead to its erasure. We must be very careful about how we think about and talk
about the mitzvot we have done.

The Rambam continues: "Just as a person's mitzvot and misdeeds are
weighed and balanced at the time that he dies..." (The time of death is a time
of judgment. That is when your soul no longer has the possibility of accruing
additional merits or misdeeds because your soul is no longer in this world.)
"Just as the time of death is a time of judgement, so too, each year on
Rosh HaShanah, everyone's mitzvot and aveirot are weighed
against each other. One who is found to be righteous is sealed for life. One
who is found to be evil is sealed for death. An average person, one who
balances right in the middle, is hung in the balance until Yom Kippur.
If he does teshuva, he is then signed for life, and if not, he is
signed for death."

Let's answer one of the basic questions on the Rambam; then we'll go to the
original source in the Gamara. The question is: if he was half and
half, then on Rosh HaShanah, he hung in the balance. Why then, if he
still hangs in the balance when Yom Kippur comes, is he consigned to
death? As the Lechem Mishne explains, between Rosh HaShanah and
Yom Kippur, he had a mitzvah to do. That mitzvah was
teshuva. If he did that mitzvah, that tips the scales on the
side of life. If he fails to do that mitzvah, that failure is
considered to be an aveira.

Like everything in the Rambam, this is all based on a Gamara. The
Gamara here is in Rosh HaShanah (16b): "Rabbi Kruspadai taught
in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: Three books are opened on Rosh HaShanah.
one of completely wicked people, one of completely righteous people, and one
for the rest of us. Those who are completely righteous are inscribed and
sealed immediately on the spot in the Book of Life. Completely wicked people
are inscribed and sealed immediately in the Book of Death. The rest of us,
the average among us, we hang in the balance and we continue to stand in
judgment until Yom Kippur. If we merit, we are inscribed for life; and
if we do not merit, then we are inscribed for death." Now, a few observations.
First, you'll notice that the Gamara said that we are written and
sealed immediately on Rosh HaShanah, whereas the Rambam said we are
sealed for life or death.

You'll notice that with regard to those who hang in the balance between
Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, the Gamara said that those
who merit are written into the Book of Life. Those who go the other way are
written into the Book of Death, though it doesn't say that the judgement
is sealed. And the fact that it doesn't say it is sealed is very, very
important, because that means that we always have a chance. We always have a
chance to do teshuva, we always have a chance to change what has been
judged for us. It is never too late to do so. And we've seen this in the
Rambam as well — that we can even do so at the last moment of life.

Now, how should we consider ourselves? I'm skipping the first half of
Halacha 3:4; The second half of 3:4 reads: "Therefore, every person
should view himself during the entire year as if he is half good and half
evil, half full of mitzvot and half full of aveirot. We should
view the world in the same way. One who does one aveira tips the
balance — both for himself and for the entire world — to the side
of annihilation. One who does just one mitzvah thereby tips the scales
for himself and for the entire world to the side of merit. He causes and
brings salvation to himself and salvation to the world."

If we were able to keep this in mind at all times, no doubt none of us would
ever come to do an aveira. The Rambam impresses upon us the gravity,
and importance of every action we take, a gravity that most of us feel more
and more intensely as we approach Rosh HaShanah. May it be God's will
that we keep this focus in our minds, not only this time of year, but through
the entire Ten Days; and may we merit to keep this in our minds through the
entire year, that we should continue to accrue only merit for us and for all
the world.